6 Sep 2012

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SUCCESS: ROOTS HR CELEBRATES 100TH CLIENT MILESTONE

CfED Midlands based social enterprise Roots Human Resources CIC is celebrating this month after welcoming its 100th client to the organisation. Founded in 2009 by social entrepreneur Jan Golding, Roots HR is the UK’s first and only human resources consultancy to deliver services on a greater than profit basis to civil society organisations including charities, voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises.

This milestone is another boost to the organisation following news last year of its inclusion in the RBS Top 30 list of Fastest Growing Newcomers in the UK Social Enterprise sector. Roots HR’s 100 strong client list epitomises the vibrancy and diversity of the civil society sector as a whole and the key roles these organisations play. Clients include the world class City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal National College for the Blind and Sunday Times Top 100 employers Performances Birmingham Ltd as well as national and international charities including Action Aid UK and VoiceAbility and more localised or regional organisations such as YMCA Worcester, Jericho Foundation, Social Enterprise East Midlands and Deaf Direct.

It seemed only fitting that Roots HR’s 100th client is the Centre for Equality & Diversity (CfED) in Dudley, a charity whose mission is to promote a fair society in which the range of minority groups that exist can make a positive contribution in their communities. CfED contracted Roots HR to ensure that they could uphold these values of fairness in the design and delivery of an assessment centre for the post of Mentoring and Project Support Officer, funded by the Big Lottery Fund project BASIS 2. Through this post, the project aims to provide the leadership and resources to enable at least 60 voluntary and community sector BME led organisations to enhance service delivery and impact across Dudley, Sandwell, Telford and Wolverhampton. CfED is the accountable body for this project, forming a delivery consortium with 2 local partnership organisations.

The outcome of this project was that 12 candidates participated in the assessment centre, with 1 successful candidate being offered the position. CEO of CfED, Kenneth Rodney, comments on the role Roots HR played in this process:

"The availability of professional HR support from Roots HR was very timely. Everything was professionally delivered and gave me the impression of dealing with highly skilled HR experts. The process as a whole was very well managed, all paperwork was in order and both CfED and the candidates that attended the assessment centre were satisfied with the process. The successful candidate started 2 weeks ago and gives me the impression that she is a brilliant candidate. I remember when Roots HR was set up 3 years ago and it’s great we have now been able to acquire HR services from a social enterprise, which is something we always try and do."

Director and Lead Consultant, Louise Beasley took the role of delivering the assessment centre and shares her thoughts on what makes this type of selection process effective for civil society organisations: "Assessment centres are an ideal opportunity to measure a wide range of skills, competences and general experience of candidates through structured, objective exercises that are relevant and which reflect the reality of the role and organisation. Recruitment and selection can be a costly exercise and so it’s great to see CfED investing their time and resources in finding the right person for the role."

Reaching this milestone is a proud achievement for the organisation and is welcome news given the current trading conditions and the commercial challenges social enterprises face in becoming financially sustainable. Founder & CEO Jan Golding reflects on the past 3 years and what she believes has made Roots HR a success:

"We work tirelessly to offer a really high quality standard of technical accuracy and customer service, all tailored to the not for profit sector and the working culture within it. Clients tell us we achieve this and it makes all the hard work worthwhile. The work we undertook for CfED was a great example of how good HR can add real value in an important but routine process such as recruitment and selection."

Press enquiries to Felicity Bryson: 0845 543 8429 or admin@rootshr.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Roots Human Resources CIC was founded in January 2009. It is the UK’s first social enterprise providing HR consultancy services to small and medium-sized civil society organisations and gained the Social Enterprise Mark in May 2010.
The organisation is based in Kidderminster, N Worcestershire, but works with clients across the UK.
The organisation has established trading practices to attract and benefit the sector rather than to maximize profit; trading surpluses are reinvested for the benefit of the sector. In the financial year 2011-12 Roots HR CIC provided:
- 60 hours of free consultancy support in a variety of ways to 56 small to medium sized civil society organisations
- 2 free 12 month subscriptions to its COMPLY service for 1 charity and 1 social enterprise seeking to grow through increased trading
- 68 hours of free education and advice through speaking at events, running workshops, creating newsletters and factsheets
- Two paid internships for graduates seeking to gain work experience.
Roots HR CIC’s services include:
- COMPLY - a retained employment law and people management service
- PERFORM - a project management service for people-focussed projects
- GROW – learning and development services for civil society employers
- ADAPT - services to help civil society employees move on after redundancy
58% of social enterprise SME’s grew during 2011 compared to 28% of mainstream SME’s. Government figures show social enterprises to be contributing over £20 billion to the economy and employing nearly 1 million people.